Rock this world
by LiaOnandOff
Summary: Max is different from everyone else in the small town's high school. She just goes through the years with almost no one by her side, except Ella, her best friend. And then Fang enters the picture. The world doesn't seem so lonely anymore. This story is about Max and Fang getting through the last two years of high school. School, concerts, trips and rock music.
1. First encounters

**Hello! This is my first time after 4 years visiting FanFiction. I haven't written any Maximum Ride stories before and this one is not at all set in the universe the books use. This is an AU story, in which the Flock is completely human and Max, Nudge, Iggy and Gazzy are foster siblings and Fang is the new guy in town.**

 **I'm looking forward to receiving some feedback from you and I plan on continuing this story.**

 **Some warnings: There are some dark elements in the story, Max and Fang love rock music and they wear mostly black and skulls, bones imprinted stuff as well as sometimes pentagrams and the such. No, they are not part of a cult or something, nor are they suicidal or anything like that. I hope you will enjoy this! - J**

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Max was sleeping peacefully in her bed after the last night of partying to start the new school year with a bang. The window's blinds were shut down, no light from the outside sipping into the room. The light brown floor was covered in a bunch of clothes due to Max throwing them out of her closet while trying to decide on something to wear for the party. The closet's doors were still open wide. All of Max's make-up products were scattered all over her desk along with some books and notebooks that she had to take to school. The room looked like a total mess and the last thing Max needed when arriving back home from the party at 3 AM was to clean it up. The bed seemed to be the only furniture in that room that was some kind of neat. Under the covers, Max was snuggled tight dreaming herself at a rock concert in Central Park, New York. Just when the band was about to start playing in her dream, a loud BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP woke Max up. Groggily, she reached out her arm and searched for her alarm clock on her night desk. Finally finding it and picking it up, she slowly opened her eyes to look at the time. Precisely 8 AM, time to get up and get ready for the first day of Junior year in high school. With only 4 hours of sleep, Max was seriously considering just ignoring it and going straight back to sleep. Suddenly, a loud bang came from outside disturbing the overall silence. Max shot up in her bed, sputtering the most colourful words her brain could make up at that point.

Curious to see what caused the commotion, Max jumped out of bed, lifted the blinds and peaked outside. In the driveway next to her house, there was a trashcan knocked over and a figure cladded in black was climbing through a window. Max's first thought was that someone was trying to break into the house, but then she remembered that in has happened once before that week. It turned out that the guy was not actually a thief, but the nephew of the family living next to Max's. Max's mum announced the stranger to the family and this is how Max got the information. This nephew was new in town and did not like being confided in a room for the last week of summer, so he decided to find something interesting to do all by himself in the middle of the night.

Max just scoffed at the foolish looking guy trying to climb over the windowsill. She continued watching until he finally made it into his room and turned on the light. Now illuminated, Max could see that the guy was wearing a hoodie with the hood drawn up over his head. Just as she was about to close the blinds, the guy took off the hood revealing his long black hair tied up in a bun. Max could see his profile and somehow she was dying to see his actual face. She stood frozen in front of the window waiting for the guy to turn around. She could see him grow stiff and sharply turn out looking out his window. For a second, it appeared that he made eye-contact with her, but it was stupid to think that since she was surrounded by darkness and she knew for sure that there was no possible way that he could see her. Max took the moment to truly look at him. He seemed be a lot taller than she thought at first, he had a strong jaw-line, a straight nose and dark nicely shaped brows. From that distance, Max couldn't tell the colour of his eyes or the details of his face, but she was certain that there was no other word to describe him but beautiful. Like, truly beautiful. Suddenly feeling herself blush, Max stepped back from the window and closed the blinds, trying to calm herself down.

"Okay, Max, he's just a guy! Do not get ahead of yourself. You just saw him from a distance. Only because he has long hair, it doesn't mean that you have to fall for him!"

Talking herself down was not something that happened often. Usually she was super calm and composed, without any kind of things troubling her at all. And when it came to guys, Max was definitely not the type to go pining over one. That was mostly because her type of guy never showed up in her life before.

You see, the thing with Max is that she is some kind of a rebel. Being raised only by her mother, who also has to take her of her foster brothers and sister, gave her the freedom to do a lot of what she pleased. It's true that she used to get in trouble a lot in her first year of high school, but then she learnt that her mom needed help and one child less to worry about. So she became more responsible around the house and yet, Max still had her streak of rebelliousness when hanging with people or just plainly creating stir ups at school. Of course, nothing that escaladed past detention. Because of this attitude, it was really hard for Max to make close friends, so she decided it's better to just cruise through high school and let people seek her out. What she did not expect, though, was to encounter this girl, Ella, who happened to be the opposite of Max in behavior. While Max was prone to get into sticky situations, Ella always happened to be somewhere around to help her escape. Since these occurrences were quite often at some point, Ella and Max became pretty close and have been inseparable from then on. What Ella happened to do a lot, was fall for every cute guy that she exchanged a few words with. Max was the one to keep her level headed and not let her get too much into something before being sure of what she wanted.

Meanwhile, Max never found a guy to connect with at this kind of level. She was looking for someone who would have a sense of adventure in them and who would be up to spontaneous trips and outings. Not only that, but she also always imagined herself ending up with a bad boy: all tough and rough on the outside, yet an amazing person hiding underneath that appearance. That's exactly why she felt something inside her chest the moment she set eyes on the face of the neighbors' nephew.

Finally deciding to go back to reality, Max shook her head, went to the closet to pick up some undergarments and went to the bathroom to take a shower. After cleaning up and feeling refreshed, it was time for Max to decide what to wear on her first day back at school. Rummaging through the clothes scattered on the floor and through the ones left in the closet, she finally found a pair of ripped black skinny jeans, a black tank top and an off-shoulder red top with a black skull on it. Happy with her choice of clothes, Max put on her red Converse shoes with small safety pins all over them. Then she quickly put some light make-up on, adding a light red lip gloss on. Satisfied with her looks, Max gathered the books from her desk and dumped them into her backpack, then she made her way downstairs to grab breakfast.

The house was dead-silent, something that did not happen often, so Max enjoyed the silence while she ate a bowl of milk with cereals. Scrolling through her Instagram account she tumbled across a post of her favourite rock band, Iron Maiden, announcing their tour dates for the upcoming summer. They were coming to LA, California on the 22nd of July, a perfect date for Max to attend. Keeping her delighted scream at a minimum she made a note to remember to buy the ticket as soon as they were on sale. The only downside was that Max had no one to go with to the concert and she doubted that her mom would just let her get on a bus to LA "just to see some screaming long-haired dudes". Her mom never understood her love for rock music and she gave up a long time trying to explain it.

Finish her breakfast, Max picked up her bag and went out the door just as a car pulled in front of the house. Ella was driving a red convertible ready to kick off the start of junior year.

"Max, get in! We have 5 minutes to get to the opening speech!" Ella shouted from the car. Max chuckled quietly to herself, picked up the skateboard lying next to the door and jumped into the car.

"Chill, Ella! It's just a speech. Have a good year and keep up the good work… The same speech given by principal Normand every year. Aren't you sick of it?" Ella started driving and just laughed at Max's attitude.

"You forget the most important part. There is a new guy joining our year! We haven't had a new kid since forever. I think the last time we were in 4th grade and that was you transferring from another school." Max was once the new kid to a new school and that happened just because her younger sister, Nudge, was born and their mom wanted Max to be closer to home and not drive her every morning to another school in another town.

"Yeah, don't remind me. I was the main attraction for a month, luckily then Iggy started going all crazy and they had someone else to focus on."

Soon they arrived at the school's parking lot. There were a lot of people walking in and out of school, hurrying with the final preparations for the start of the year. Max just rolled her eyes, got out of the car and made her way to the stairs that lead to the main entrance. Ella was right behind her, struggling to keep her backpack on her shoulder.

"Max, slow down! This thing's heavy!" Ella was the kind of girl who took school seriously, which meant that her backpack was not only full of the books they needed for the entire year, but also with the ones for AP classes. Max slowed her pace and the girls made their way together to their lockers to drop off their bags. There were more people in the hallway having the same purpose. Everybody has been assigned a locker at the end of the previous year and their schedules have been e-mailed a week before school started. Everyone was sharing stories about what they did over the summer, about trips they took with their parents and friends, about parties they've attended. Max closed her locker's door and leaned against it. Ella was still trying to fit her backpack into the locker, finally kicking the door shut.

From the other end of the hallways gasps could be heard from girls and whispering noises were getting louder and louder. Max and Ella looked at each other, not understanding what the commotion was about. They turned their heads in the direction of the doors and they saw a guy walking through the middle of the hallway, everyone else stepping aside to let him pass. Heads were turning in his direction, both from girls and boys. Ella also let a small gasp leave her and Max could only stare in disbelief. The guy walking like he had no care in the world, with earbuds on and his hood pulled up was the same guy living in the house next to hers. He had a sheet of paper in his hand and with the corner of his eyes he was checking the locker numbers. He stopped right in front of Max and she gulped once. She was unnerved by his presence and that never happened to her. Ella simply took a few steps back afraid of what might happen.

The guy slowly lifted his eyes from the paper and looked past Max, at the locker next to hers. He didn't even spare her a look, he simply pushed past her and entered the combination to unlock the door. Max gathered her bearings and leaned against her locker once again. She was watching him from the corner of her eyes, patiently waiting for him to put aside his bag. Once he was finished and turned around to leave, Max blocked his path. For the first time, he slowly lifted his head to look at her and pulled the wire of the earbuds in order to take them off. He leaned against his locker, raising an eyebrow at Max's behavior. She tried to keep her eyes from widening at how dark the colour of his eyes was, almost black. Being the type of girl who never got tongue-tied, this was a strange occurrence for Max. The guy was growing impatient with her. He changed position, propping one foot against the locker, bent at the knee.

"I'm Max, from the looks of it, your locker neighbor. If you need help getting around here, you can ask me, if you want." He slowly nodded his head and waited for her to say something else. But she was busy studying him from head to toe.

He was wearing a black hoodie with the imprint of the upper half of a skeleton with the zipper half-way undone. Beneath the hoodie Max could see a grey T-shirt with what appeared to be a rock band's logo on it. His black jeans were tucked into a pair of black combat boots. He was dark and mysterious and intriguing to Max. What she did not notice was that the guy was also looking at her intensely, taking all of her in. When Max finally lifted her gaze to make eye contact with him she inhaled sharply struck by his looks. He really was handsome, beautiful even, there was something harsh and yet soft in his features, and this intrigued Max to no end.

"Are you going to tell me your name?!" Max was blushing, something that has never happened to her in this circumstances before. The guy's mouth didn't move at all, but his eyes seemed to smile. He just nodded once, stood a bit straighter and in a low gentle voice:

"Fang". Max raised an eyebrow and didn't inquire any further. He pushed himself off the locker, straightening up. In his turn he raised an eyebrow and made a motion with his head as if to ask "Shall we?". Max nodded. "Come on, Ella, you were existed for the speech!"

"Uuuum, Max, I think I'll see you later, okay? I have… umm… I'll just… Nevermind. Bye!"

"Okaaay, that was weird! She's not usually like that". Max turned to face Fang and he just nodded.

"Hmm, you're quite the talker, aren't you?" Max teased. He just shrugged and went down the hallway slowly so that Max could catch up. She told him some basic rules about the school and what the teachers expected of the students, she told him which places to stay away from (like the bathroom on the 2nd floor and the cafeteria tables next to the doors that lead to the outside zone of the cafeteria), where the library was for homework research and that all labs were on the 3rd floor. Fang didn't say a word all the way to the high school's football field where the opening ceremony was taking place. When they reached the bleachers and found 2 places to sit, Max gave up trying to get a word out of him. They listened to the chatter going on around them, not even looking at each other. Then, out of nowhere, Fang leaned down and put his mouth next to her ear: "Thanks. We'll get along just fine.". Max turned her head and smiled at him, ready to respond, but she was interrupted by the loud blare of a trumpet. The ceremony has begun.

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 **Thank you for reading and I hope to get some reviews! I will update another chapter a week from now.**


	2. Hanging out

**I'm so sorry! I know I said I would upload the second chapter a week after the first, but life got in the way. I moved and I still have to get internet at my new place. Fortunately, now I am using my university's wi-fi, so I can finally upload it.**

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"That was insanely boring!" Fang complained to Max. Apparently, even though he was a quiet person, he couldn't help sharing this obvious information with her. Considering that even the most silent person that Max has ever met felt the need to say it, you can imagine just how bad it was.

"Well, this is how it goes every year, it is bound to be boring! Luckily, today we only have a class with the homeroom teacher, after that everybody just goes out and in the evening there's a party going on at the lake." Max had a feeling that Fang was not at all interested in the lake party, but she wanted to see his reaction to it and he did not disappoint.

He scrunched up his nose in disgust and shrugged. Max gave a whole-hearted laugh and shook her head. Fang again looked at her with a straight face, although she could clearly see his eyes smiling. That was odd, the second time Max saw his eyes do that and not his lips. Somehow she figured out Fang was not at all the normal every day kid who smiles or smirks. He was quiet, mysterious, locked away, straight faced, nothing to give his emotions away besides his eyes. The absolute perfect definition of what Max would rather stay away from, but she felt drawn to him, like it was something there that kept him from enjoying life and he intrigued her.

They walked together to the homeroom class and seated next to each other. They were among the first few students to enter the classroom, so when it started filling up, people gave odd looks to Max and her new companion. Some girls were looking at Fang intensely, clearly mesmerized by his looks. The sound of guys scoffing was constant. Although, Max thought Fang would be totally oblivious to the attention offered to him, it was becoming quite clear that he was aware of it and wanted none of it.

He slid a little lower into his seat and cast down his eyes, while playing with a leather bracelet on his right wrist. Max's gaze was drawn to the bracelet because of the movement of his hand. The bracelet was completely black with a few undistinguishable symbols marked in it. Fang noticed that she was looking, so he stopped and picked up a pencil to play with. He was looking at her and she was still looking intensely at his wrist. He put the pencil down and pushed the sleeve of his hoodie up to his forearm. Max was caught by surprise and she lifted her eyes to meet Fang's. He simply places his arm in front of her letting her take a look at his bracelet. Max chuckled softly. There were 3 bracelets perched on his arm, one thin, the one he was playing with earlier, the 2nd wider and with a chain-like pattern drawn on it and the last one was made of dark blue beads. Those bracelets screamed "dark and brooding" all over Fang.

"I'm assuming you don't like rainbows and unicorns, but storms and skulls?" Fang let a low sound from his throat, a sound of approval.

"Lightning storms mostly". For a second Max thought he was joking, but his eyes looked dead serious. Truly, for him, the eyes were the window to his soul.

"Well, I happen to like them as well, guess something else that we have in common, you know, besides our style." Fang abruptly turned his head towards her, looking like she said something amazing to him. Max was understandably surprised by his reaction, silently asking for an explanation.

"Our _style_?"

"Yes… you know, black, skulls, band t-shirts…". Fang gave her a blank look.

Max let out a frustrated sigh: "Do you know how hard it is to find someone not to look weirdly at you when you walk through the school's hallways or when you're in a shop? Damn, sometimes grandparents with their grandkids cross the street just to avoid me." Although she tried to keep her tone cheerful it turned out to sound angry. She slightly winced.

"Sorry, it just annoys from time to time." Again, Fang just nodded and nudged her shoulder a bit. Max looked up at him. "'s fine. I know the feeling. With time, it stops being a bother." Max slightly smiled. What she gathered: he went through the same things, only for a bit longer than her.

"Thanks." He just shrugged and pointed to the front of the classroom where the teacher just walked in.

They got through homeroom without anything interesting happening. When the bell rang, Max picked up her books and waited for Fang to make their way to the lockers and get their bags.

They kept silent, cruising through the mass of students eager to get out of school and enjoy the last day without homework. Max rolled her eyes at the freshmen that were all but tackling each other to get first to the doors.

Fang just watched bored out of his mind. He never understood why people got so enthusiastic about certain things. Of course he had his moments when he felt like a bubble of joy, but those moments were so rare for him. He honestly couldn't remember the last time he smiled, not to mention laugh. To him, scowling was the defense mechanism against the world. If he wanted people to stay away from him, he would just narrow his eyes and give a death glare. Max was the total opposite of that. She always seemed to smile and face the world with laughter. She was tough, no denying it, yet somehow soft. Fang had never met someone like her before. Cheerful yet dark, tough yet soft. Max intrigued him to no end and he didn't like it, but he realized that a friend would be welcome, especially since people to accept him for him were hard to find.

"Soooo, do you want to do something?" Fang was surprised by Max's proposal to hang out. Apparently he gave that away by widening his eyes. Max, again, laughed. "Cool down, it's just to get to know each other better." He nodded, adjusted the bag on his shoulder and walked beside Max.

"Where?" He simply asked. Max seemed to think about it for a minute.

"Hmmm, maybe this café close to the amusement park." Fang gave her a blank stare. "Okay, just joking. I know just the spot. If you trust me, follow me." She took off running, looking back to see if he followed. He remained standing where she left him. Max stopped, frowned and lifted her hands in the air as if to say "Hellooo, I'm waiting." He approached her slowly, almost resembling an animal going in for the kill. Max became tense. When she opened her mouth to apologize, he pushed past her and started running in the direction she took off. Laughing at his behavior, Max trailed him, caught up and continued running towards this spot she knew.

That was the first time he was joking around in a long time.

She caught up with him and, side by side running, they reached a park. It was not very big and they could see a concrete wall framing it from behind. Max grabbed Fang's arm and bolted again towards the wall. When he almost thought that they were going to crash right into it, Max pointed out towards a whole in the wall.

"We go through there and then we are about 300 m away from the place I want to show you." The whole was pretty small, they had to bend at the waist to go through it. They ended up in a long field covered with tall grass. It definitely looked like nobody took care of it, everything was just wild. Max turned right on a trail with Fang following suit.

After 5 minutes of walking they could see something like the shape of a building made of bricks. As they got closer, Max beaming with excitement, he could see that it was actually a building in ruins. It was an isolated place, some place where he could see himself belonging. He picked up his pace, adjusting the bag on his shoulder. Max caught up with him smiling and encouraging him to go through a part where the wall of the building was broken.

Fang went inside and looked up. The building was not very tall, maybe 10 m or so, and there was no roof. The clear blue sky was visible through the circle created by the ruins walls. The whole building appeared to be in the form of a cylinder.

"What was this place?" Fang asked in awe.

"It used to be some kind of factory. Not many people know about it and those who know would much rather stay away." He just nodded at the explanation and after circling the room a bit he went outside, followed by Max.

"So, do you like it?" Fang turned his gaze towards her, again his eyes seeming to smile. Nodding once more he took the bag off his shoulders and started climbing on the outside of the wall. The bricks offered some hand and foot holds. About 5 m above the ground, a small place could have been used as a sitting spot. The wall, being thick enough, accommodated Fang sitting comfortably with his back against one side of the hole. He signaled Max to come up and join him. Max dropped her back and escaladed the wall quickly. Fang helped her get settled into the spot next to him.

"Cool eyesight. I've been around here a lot, but I never actually saw this hole." Max mirrored his position. She felt the breath catch in her throat. The view from there was beautiful. The field laid wide open from there, creating the illusion of another universe. Scattered all over it were patches of grass of different colours. It almost looked like a mosaic.

A small puff-like sound came from Fang. Max whipped her head in his direction and she almost fell off the ledge. He was smirking. Not a smile, a smirk. Progress.

"You're supposed to be the expert of these ruins." She smiled while blushing.

"I haven't discovered them for long. And I prefer staying on the ground rather than suspended, but thanks for finding this. I usually come here to be alone and think. It's good to not feel overwhelmed by people." There was a pause. Fang lifted an eyebrow.

"This is your place." It was not a question, but a statement.

Max nodded and light-heartedly said: "I feel like I can trust you, so now this can be your place, too." Another pause. "Why don't you talk much?"

Fang seemed taken aback by the brusque question. Max was watching him intensely, waiting for an answer. Due to the wind, a few strands of his long hair broke free from his hair tie. He pushed those strands behind one ear looking into the distance and sighed. Then looking straight at Max, he began.

"It's not that I don't want to talk. I don't have much to say, I guess. Words are meant to say something, not to blabber."

"Then tell me something. I've only known you for a day and already I told you more than even Ella knew the first year of our friendship." Fang looked at her through lowered eyelashes.

"Alright. I've come here to live with my aunt and uncle. I needed a change of scenery. I lived in an even smaller town than this one and I felt confined by my parents. They agreed to let me come here as long as I promised to stay in school. I am okay with that. They never really understood why I am the way I am. Why I like dark colours, rock music or even to just go out to a concert or something. At my old school, I didn't have people that I could call friends, only some people I hung out with from time to time. We never clicked. So, I never talked much with anyone in a long time. There you have it, my back story."

Max was looking at him mesmerized. And in that moment she knew she was a goner. Fang was truly beautiful and the way he spoke, sad and passionate at the same time, captivated her. This boy never had anyone to connect with and he chose to stick around her. Max just hoped not to ruin it, after all… this guy seemed to be exactly what she was looking for.

They enjoyed the silence around them and the still warm wind blowing around them. A few hours have passed since they got up. Max was the first one to climb down, immediately followed by Fang.

Both picked up their discarded bags and retraced their steps.

Max was thinking about the Iron Maiden concert in summer, of how she could see herself going with Fang. After all, he seemed to be into the same zone as her. Suddenly, she figured it out.

"Iron Maiden!"

Fang was surprised by her outburst. "Huh?"

Max shook her head. "Your shirt. The logo of Iron Maiden is written on it." She pointed at the small patch of writing that could be seen above his hoodie's zipper. Fang looked down and unzipped the hoodie.

"Um, yeah. I guess you like them?" Max's smile almost blinded him.

"Favourite band, actually."

Fang looked at her in disbelief. "No way! You know their coming to LA in summer, right?"

Max nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, I can't wait until the ticker are on sale. Do you… Ummm… maybe it's a bit early to ask, but would you like to go together?" Fang's eyes widened at the proposition. It was the first time he was asked by someone if he wanted to go to a concert together. Since he enjoyed hard rock and heavy metal, not many people wanted to tag along, so he always went to concerts by himself.

The feeling encompassing Fang felt extremely warm and almost made him smile. For odd reasons, he held back. Max was still new to him and him to her. Although there was clearly a connection between them, who knew what would happen in time. But his childish desire to find someone to accept him for who he was, left no doubt when it came to his answer:

"I'd love that."

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 **Chapter 3 will have to wait around a week and a half :(. I have a full week this one and next week I'll be back at my parents home. Hopefully, I'll be inspired and be ready to upload.**


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